Raging About 'Roids

So the Mithcell report came out and basically discredited everything that's happened in baseball (and every other professional sport) in the last ten years, as being 'performance enahnced.' Now, as I read about the daily news updates about who is being accused of doing what, I'm saddened as well as disgusted. Here's what I think about all this:

1. Our society needs to take a look in the mirror and accept some blame for what's happened. It's very easy. This whole steroids in sports problem is actually our fault, not the athlete's fault. As much as we hate to admit it, we created Barry Bonds and we created Roger Clemens. As long as we continue to watch games on TV, pay for tickets, buy the Jerseys, then we are bascially endorsing these athlete's actions. If we refused to follow the sports in their current state, then the sports would have to change. If we as fans collectively refused to show up at a MLB game until they got their act together, then believe me they'd change in a hurry. Instead, we have this hypocritical bull crap, where we say we don't believe in drug use, but then we still pay to watch its' results. Screw that. If we're going to watch the sports, then at least we should admit and acknowledge that we are okay with the drug use.

2. There should be no role for government in this baseball steroid issue, or any other sports steroid issue, unless it is to raise money for anti drug use campaigns. The Federal government should not care whether or not Roger Clemens has been tainted. Leave that to the police to figure out if he broke any laws. We don't need valuable tax money being spent trying to figure out how many of Barry Bonds' home runs are 'real' or not, not when soldiers are dying overseas everyday and the polar ice caps are melting. So the next time the feds get involved and start mucking their noses in sports, please let's remind them that, ahem, shouldn't they have better things to do?

3. What about the kids? This is the most powerful, if not the only reason, to continue attempting to police sports and prevent performance enhancement from occurring, because impressionable kids who aspire to become great athletes will have no choice but to do as their role models do. Still, I think it's hogwash. We all know most of Hollywood is boozed and drugged up out of control. Britney Spears is on the cover of US magazine every two weeks. I don't hear anything about how she needs to set a better example for all the young girls out there. So why should Tank Johnson? I empathize with the kids, you're growing up in a whole world of deceit. In my era, it was Ben Johnson on drugs, today it's everyone. It's a harsh world kids, you gotta learn to live in it.

So this is what I think should happen, in a perfect world. We will all stop watching these tainted sports, get off our asses and go exercise at the gym, at the park, at the YMCA, for the fun of it and not waste money on stupid jerseys! Then, the sports will be forced to clean up their act or else we fans won't come back!

Here's what should happen, in our less than perfect world. We should at least acknowledge that we are accomplices in this steroid culture as long as we watch and follow these sports. Admitting our crime to ourselves will be a good first step. The sports can then stop with this nonsense of pretending to police itself when it really can't (and when it really couldn't care less) and we'll live in a lot less hypocrisy.

Here's what will happen. Fans will turn a blind eye to the hypcrosiy of the problem. We'll continue to support Bonds' HR chase until he gets caught officially, and then we'll bash him mercilessly and call for further, sterner testing measures. Then the government can waste millions of dollars which should be spent on better things in an attempt to prevent grown men from hitting baseballs a little bit further. The fans will feel good about taking such a righteous stand. The sports will roll in the dough forever and also pat themselves on the back for their "rigorous" testing methods, and the media will have lots to write about. And we'll live happily ever after.

That's what I think.